Techno-economics of long and short term technology pathways for renewable transportation fuel production

Techno-economics of long and short term technology pathways for renewable transportation fuel production

Sweden has the ambition to have a fossil-free vehicle fleet by 2030. From a short-term perspective, biofuels are needed that can be used in existing vehicles and infrastructure (identical to gasoline or diesel; drop-in fuels). The Swedish Energy Agency has in particular highlighted lignin based biofuels as a strategically prioritized area. From a longer time perspective focus is on high-blend or pure biofuels, due to energy and resource availability reasons. Examples are cellulose-based ethanol, or methane, methanol and DME produced via biomass gasification. In this project, short- and long-term technology tracks for integrated biofuel production will be evaluated regarding techno-economic performance and technology readiness level.

The analysis will be made based on existing knowledge and on targets for production costs under given scenarios, from which acceptable investment costs and yields will be calculated. The results can be used to guide future R&D efforts.